Digication

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Business cards? Yeah, Business cards.

A while back ago, when I started my blog, I had actually designed the business cards before I got to designing the blog site banner. What ended up happening was that the business cards turned out to be great designs on my laptop. I had made the cards that I had wanted. Now the only thing that was going to be new was that I was going to actually order them, to get some actual physical cards in my hand.This is where I had begun to say to myself, "maybe I don't need business cards that bad." This was reality, I was wrong. If anything, I needed business cards now, why? Since I have been back at home, this has been my chance to establish a network of potential clients. I could give them my card and people know you mean business. You can't be seen as the cute little kid that does art anymore. I think all of us that are going to school for art know that if you can convince your community back home that doing Art for can be a job, you can overcome plenty of other challenges in your path.As I was saying, I needed to get business cards to start making the connections back home. In my opinion, this actually has some advantages to it.

This guy just found out he could get business cards, just look how happy and joyful he is about that news. Score!!!

You can...1. Present and establish yourself as a professional in your community.2. Show the community that Art is more than just a pretty picture and that it's just as practical as any other job out there. Give them a new perspective.3. Inspire some youngsters along the way (You would be surprised).4. Get businesses to remember that you can do work, and they could call/email/stalk you later on down the road (Hope they don't stalk you).5. As cheesy as this last one might be, but you can also, be an example of what can happen when you actually pursue the dreams that have been on your heart.I'm sure that there are many other things advantages too, but I just wanted to keep the list short.Before I made any final decisions on order cards, I had them send me a free sample packet of their products. Always, always, always check to see if they offer free samples. This gives you of the range of not only products they make, but also their quality. After checking out the samples, I began the quest of ordering my new business cards.I finally made the decision to just get them. One thing that I tried to make sure was that the design was perfect, because this same design was going to be on all the cards that I would order. I then had the final design and had made it according to the format that the online place requested them to be in. I finalized everything by placing the order, and have been waiting with so much excitement. Finally receiving them yesterday, I opened the box that had my 100 cards in it.I have a few reasons I only ordered 100 cards:-If the printed design was not as good as I thought, well then hey, I only have 100, not 1,000. -I can think of these 100 cards as a trial run. The faster the cards go, the more I can order later, the slower the cards go, the less I order later on.-This also gives me a chance to see where I can improve the design for the next batch of cards I order.After viewing the cards, I did end up having a small issue with them, my type was a little too small than what I was expecting. Even though this happened, this particular issue was on me, because of how I designed them. I had simply made the type a little too small. Everything else about the cards I loved. The quality is great, the colors are exactly as I wanted them to be, and even the sturdiness of the cards was excellent.

Above: These are the digital files of my cards. They look really clean and I'm really proud of the design.Below: I have a webcam shots of the card. I know it still won't do justice to see what I'm talking about, but at least you get to see it.

I know making a business card doesn't sound like a big deal, but I want to make it into a big deal. I want my community to see that I can make a living doing this crazy cool thing called Art. By simply making a business card, you can give others a snapshot of what your abilities are able to accomplish.I hope that this post can help encourage others to at least consider making a business card, if not now, then maybe in the next few months or maybe years. Either way, I hope that you can still keep having fun creating awesome things.